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THREAT

Path Traversal (Agent)

directory traversal../../../ escalationagent filesystem access

Path traversal in agentic AI occurs when an agent's filesystem-access tools are manipulated to access files and directories outside their intended scope, exposing credentials or application secrets.

ADVERSARIAL MECHANICS

An injected instruction passes a relative path with traversal sequences (../../../../etc/passwd) to a read_file tool. Encoded variants (double-encoding, Unicode normalization) are used to defeat naive string-matching defenses.

PROTOCOL CONTEXT (MCP FILESYSTEM TOOLS)

MCP's filesystem server tools are designed to be scoped to a root. McpVanguard can add configured policy checks at the routed proxy boundary, subject to the operating system, kernel, fallback path, and active profile.

ProvnAI Mitigation

McpVanguard can normalize routed path parameters before evaluation against configured filesystem safe zones. Enforcement behavior depends on the operating system, kernel, fallback path, and active profile.